First Impressions
by Akino Ame
Summary: A rather unorthodox look into the dark side of Kouichi Kimura's mind. What are his original impressions of the Chosen, and how have they changed? Probably not for fans of incest or any Kouichi couplings in particular


First Impressions

No matter how many times I think it over, I still find it strange. How is it that a group of people I tried to kill are so willing to be my friends and sacrifice their lives for me? Even the others on Cherubimon's side would rather have their DigiCode scanned before sticking their necks out to help me. Out there, it was every man for himself; and here, it's all for one and one for all. Perhaps I was right in thinking they were strange.

My first impressions of them were only scratching the surface. Take the leader for example, a kid named Takuya. I first thought of him as an arrogant loudmouth who had no place leading a horse to water, much less a team of less than par Legendary Warriors. After I met him, I found out that is what he is, but more than that too. Contrary to my first observations, he actually does listen to everyone once in a while. He grew into his role as leader slowly but surely.

Then there's the small one. They call him Tomoki. He's definitely the baby of the group, but he no longer acts like it. Long before I even started fighting, I watched him cry at every disaster that came his way. Although I do admit that it was entertaining to see his reaction to the crumbling ground beneath him and Takuya, it was a shame that the Spirit of Ice was wasted on him. But after a while, he learned to stop crying and became brave enough to survive this world. He'll need all the courage he gathered if he wants to deliver this world from evil.

Next up is the one they call Junpei. At first, I thought he did no more than just flirt with the girl to no success. Oh yeah. That and eat. But I guess even he can grow up too. He wasn't exactly the kind of person to count on when there was trouble, but at least he's stopped running from danger. Sure, granted, that doesn't mean he'll face it on headfirst like Takuya will, but he won't leave his friends to face it alone. And he stopped flirting too much too.

Speaking of flirting, there's Izumi. She's the one girl in the group, and everybody seems to know it. She knows certain nameless people (one I've already mentioned) are hitting on her, and she purposely ignores it. If it doesn't drive them up the wall, it drives me up there and back. But it's not like ignoring is her only tactic. I've seen her flirting with other people too. She makes them jealous, and it works. She's even tried flirting with me, but I hope she's stopped by now. But if the others have their good points, she does too. I think. She does stand up for people when no one else will, so there has to be some more about her. Let me get back to you on that.

There are two more in the group, but I belong to the group less than this one does, so I'll include him in.

If this was my second family, only one of them is from my first. Or, from what remains of my first. This is probably my third or fourth family since the divorce and my grandmother's sickness.

Kouji's my brother, and neither of us was too proud about it at first. Come on, I was the most powerful evil being next to Cherubimon and Lucemon, and here was this weak kid pretending to be strong. How could we be brothers?

We're twins though, but that's beside the point.

Anyway, like I was saying, we hated each other at our first meeting. We were—and still are—complete opposites. Let's see, when I first encountered them face-to-face, they had just defeated Petaldramon. Arbormon was expecting me to help, but how could I help someone weaker than those kids? Rather than assist him, I killed him myself and took his DigiCode and Spirit for my own. Yes. I was evil and damn proud of it too.

Kouji, well, he'd die before betraying any of his friends. Funny I even refer to them as his friends. Half the time they forget he's there or don't care one way or the other. You know, after I cut his side open with my blade and he dropped to the ground half-dead, only that Takuya guy showed any compassion. Okay, that was probably because Kouji had warned him this would come and saved his pathetic ass, but still the others just stood there. I would have thought they'd be right there to help him.

Okay, before anyone gets any wrong thoughts about the way I'm talking about him, get one thing straight. I would never and could never have romantic feelings for my brother. That is completely disgusting. Sure, I have nothing against gay people—I'm human, I see this stuff all the time—but incest is a completely different matter altogether. How the royal families managed to survive on it is beyond me, but all of those dynasties fell anyway.

Besides, with the stuff he's been through, the last thing on Earth he needs is a perverted brother running after him. Or any romance period.

Well, I'm still surprised that after everyone left him for dead, he got up and limped halfway across the continent to save them. That's either true friendship or true foolishness. Back then, I wouldn't stick my neck out for the people that apparently left me dying in the middle of nowhere—and notice they did. Takuya somehow found himself at a Trailmon terminal, and the others ended up being captured (devolved, which indicates a struggle) while Kouji woke up bleeding and lying on the dirt. I wouldn't risk my neck for "friends" like those, but then again, they wouldn't risk themselves for me.

Kouji pretends he doesn't like them, but I think that they finally grew on him. The little parasites grew on me too, but that's not the point. Kouji was told from when he was two that his mother died and he had to deal with it. Then how on Earth is dear old Dad going to explain how I grew up for nine years in a different city—with Mom and Grandma no less. Well, that encounter with Dad is bound to come soon, if Kouji ever figured out how to explain our meeting.

I guess I admire him as much as I despise him. Kouji's everything I don't want to be and am at the same time, but he handles things much better than I do. Now if only I could figure out how to keep him out of those life-threatening situations…

In case you haven't noticed, the "_ichi_" in "Kouichi" means "one," and the "_ji_" in "Kouji" means "two." I'm older than he is, but he's always saving my ass.

Oh well. I guess that's just the way things turn out.

I'm not really looking forward to meeting my father; in fact, I'd rather face down this evil all by myself than do that, but I'll have to one day. Well, if it's possible. I'm starting to even doubt that I'll live to see this world freed. I've been taking all sorts of hits without feeling any pain, and I'm starting to worry about what it means. Hopefully I just don't get hit as hard as everyone else, but time will tell nonetheless.

Well, I've learned that first impressions mean nothing, so that's probably all it is. Nothing. And my father may not be as cruel and heartless a person as I first thought. After all, Kouji grew up under his care, and he turned out all right. He's only got a loner's complex, but we all have our flaws. My flaw is that I'm afraid of being strong. I'm afraid of becoming that monster I was before and turning all my friends away from me.

Oh no. Those little parasites actually grew on me.

Note to self: Get bug spray.

It seems I won't be able to run from them. Maybe that's why Kouji decided to rescue them rather than abandon them like they always do for him. There's nowhere to run once these first impressions are shattered.

I have to learn how to be antisocial like he was. There are too many parasites in the world to latch on to us.

**I'm probably going to get a ton of flames for this, but I don't care. I'm entirely sick of Kouichi being portrayed the way he is in all these incest fics: a disgusting pervert who will run after his brother. Then there are the other portrayals of him as a jerk. My god, what is this? The redo of all of Osamu Ichijouji's wrongful interpretations? And I figured it would be good to make Kouichi's personality seem a little tougher than it is in the anime. If anyone cares, the person and fic that inspired this were The Sh33p and his Irvine fic "No Last Name." Look for it in my favorite authors if anyone wants to. Well, now that I've wasted enough time with this, I'm heading back to "With Broken Wings."**


End file.
